Syfy's Krypton Casting Breakdowns Introduce Superman's Family

Jumping on the superhero bandwagon, Syfy recently ordered the pilot for David Goyer's Krypton, a television series that will explore heroes of the titular planet two generations before the Man of Steel is born and sent to Earth. With characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the show will focus, specifically, on Superman's grandfather during a time when the House of El had shameful social standing, setting him on the quest to bring honor to the family name, as well as defend his beloved home planet from an unspecified enemy.

Goyer, who is currently working on the script, serves as the show's executive producer and is a seasoned DC writer (he recently co-wrote Warner Bros.' Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice). Plus, the show will be released under his production company, Phantom Four. Aside from the brief series overview and major creative players, however, not much else has been known about the show – until now.

TV Line has released a description of the show's cast of characters, which, not surprisingly, includes a whole lot of Els and Zods. Seg-El, Superman's grandfather and series hero, is described as "athletic, quietly confident, and in his 20s" – a different personification than his older, grumpier counterpart in the classic Starman No. 51 (which Goyer also worked on).

The El line goes back further with Val-El, Seg-El's grandfather and "genius" who defied death by traveling to the Phantom Zone. Then there's Lyta Zod, the twenty-something beauty and "reluctant warrior," who no doubt has some sort of ancestral tie to Superman's future foe, General Zod.

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Other characters (with less fleshed out breakdowns, however) include Alura Zod (Lyta's mother who, interestingly, shares a name with Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl), Ter-El (Seg's father and Superman's great-grandfather), and Dev-Em, Kryptonian "bad boy" who, in the comics, escapes Krypton before it goes boom, abuses Superboy on Earth, and eventually aligns himself with the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century.

Confused yet? Production for the show is set to begin this summer, so there is no word yet on who is going to play the Els and the Zods. In the meantime, we can only speculate if this is going to take off like other popular television adaptions of the Man of Steel's origins (The WB's Smallville, for example) or if it will amount to nothing more than a super soap opera, featuring a cast of characters with more confusing names than usual.

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Screen Rant will bring you more information on Krypton when it becomes available.